My thoughts on rural broadband in Scotland, prepared as a briefing paper for Nigen Don MSP, for a debate in the Scottish Parliament, February 2012.

1. Broadband in Scotland
Bill Buchan
Buchan Consultancy Services Ltd

2. Agenda
• What is the state of broadband in Scotland
• Major issues facing broadband
• What can be done to improve it

3. Who am I?
• Bill Buchan - bill@billbuchan.com
• Independent technology consultant
• Ex-oil industry
• focused on collaboration technology
• Lives in rural Scotland
• Fighting for rural internet access for 10
years

4. Why?
• Internet is no longer a luxury
• Many services - both commercial and
government - strongly encourage internet
access
• Areas with poor internet access will
become less attractive for housing
• ‘Haves and Have Nots’

5. Remember
• Information workers can work from home
or work in flexible patterns
• Thus reducing the requirement for major
investment in other infrastructure
• This has a real impact on major budgets
• Information workers earn more, and
therefore contribute more to taxes

6. What is ADSL
• ADSL stands for Asymmetrical Digital
Subscriber Line
• Speed is dependant on line length: The
longer the line, the slower the speed
• Rural communities have longer phone
lines...

7. ADSL
• ADSL comes in three flavours
• ADSL - Maximum 2mb line speed
• ADSL MAX - 8mb
• ADSL2 - 22mb line speed

8. ADSL
• Most rural exchanges are ADSL MAX
Most urban exchanges are ADSL2
• Other providers can install equipment in
exchanges (LLU)
• Only 176 / 1070 exchanges in Scotland.
• Rural areas - BT are monopoly
• BT not treating rural areas as a priority

9. Other Broadband Tech?
• WiMax - wireless.
• Satellite - routing via Satellite
• Powerline - routing over power lines
• Fibre to the house - BT Infinity
• Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC)
• Cable TV
• 4G

10. WiMax
• Internet access over wireless
• All internet connections share the same
total bandwidth - more subscribers, less
shared bandwidth
• Line of sight, range issues & needs dense
subscriber base
• Bad fit for Rural Scotland

11. Satellite ADSL
• Bounce a signal off a geostationary satellite
• The signal takes 1,000ms - a whole second
- to make the trip - unsuitable for real-time
or near-time applications
• Limited bandwidth on the satellite -
expense to upgrade
• Eye-wateringly expensive

12. Powerline ADSL
• Routes a signal over the existing power
delivery infrastructure
• Equipment required at substation and
consumer premises
• Trial ran by Scottish Power in Stonehaven
in 2003/4. Little heard of since.
• Sank without trace?

13. Fibre to the Premises
• BT Infinity - Fibre to the Premises (FTTP)
• Nearly unlimited bandwidth possible (1tb?)
• Very expensive to fit
• Not available in rural areas
• BT currently cherry-picking urban areas

14. Fibre to the Cabinet
• Fibre ran from exchange to cabinet near
houses (FTTC)
• Perfect for villages where exchanges are
remote (such as Marykirk - 4km)
• Delivers perfect ADSL to consumer due to
short line length from cabinet
• BT currently cherry picking urban areas

15. Cable TV
• Cable providers (such as Virgin) can run
broadband over their infrastructure
• Achieve up to 120mb speeds
• Easy, simple installation
• Cable companies cherry picking urban
areas - no plans to expand coverage

16. 4G - Mobile Data
• If you think Rural ADSL provision is bad,
consider Rural 3g coverage
• No 3g coverage in Rural areas in Scotland
• O2 have confirmed that my rural area
(Marykirk) will NEVER get 3g
• 4g will probably follow same coverage
model, despite OFCOM recommendations

17. Urban/Rural Example
• Dundee Broughty Ferry • Marykirk
• Choice of BT, Virgin • Only BT
cable, Sky, O2
• Speeds of up to 40mb/s • Speed of 2.5mb/s
• Prices <£20/month • Around £25/month
• 3G mobile coverage • No 3G mobile
• link • link

18. Urban/Rural Summary
• Urban Broadband is subject to market
forces
• Plenty choice, competition
• Rural Broadband is a BT monopoly
• Not treating rural as a priority
• Not convinced?

19. Source: http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/broadband/

20. Broadband Speed
• Is 2mb enough? I argue that it is not.
• Not fast enough to sustain HD video
over a typical consumer ADSL circuit
• Urban areas can easily get speeds in excess
of 15mb
• Is this what the bar should be set to?

21. Source: http://maps.thinkbroadband.com/

22. Broadband Speed
• The UK is rated 27th out of 201 countries
• Average Speed 3.8mb/s
• Source: BBC/Akamai
• Simple test. Does your BBC iPlayer work
without stuttering? Can you watch High
Definition programs or listen to streamed
radio? Reliably?
• If it does, you are in an urban area

23. Voters?
• The internet-using population can now be
categorised as ‘your constituents’
• They really care about internet speed
• Fix it and they will be on your side
• Stand in the way, and they will remember

24. Source: http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk/news/cumbrian-mp-rory-stewart-
wins-battle-for-rural-broadband-coverage-1.914826?referrerPath=news

25. Fix rural broadband by..
• All new housing estates to be provided
with fibre to the cabinet, Cable TV or fast
internet
• Mandate that all government buildings
should have fast internet:
• Either fibre to the cabinet or ASDL2 with
at least 6mb/s access speed

26. How will this help?
• This will force BT to upgrade all exchanges
to the latest standards
• Thus eliminating the major bottleneck
• Though I understand this has been
proposed before...

27. Or the stick...
• Fast internet access should be enshrined in
law as access to phone lines are.
• BT should charge less for badly-performing
ADSL lines
• BT should provide dual-line and equipment
to bond those lines together when less
than 6mb is available - at no charge
• BT should put free fast internet wifi
hotspots on all rural telephone boxes

28. Do we want...
• To force information workers (consultants,
etc) to give up rural life and move to urban
areas merely to get decent internet?
• To force rural dwellers to suffer a second-
class internet?
I would hope the answer is no...

29. Remember
• ADSL has been around since the nineties
• Internet access is no longer a luxury
• BT are a monopoly in rural Scotland

30. References
• AskSam: Exchange, Region and Countrywide ADSL information:
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/ESNRW
• OFCOM: Broadband map of the UK
http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/broadband/
• ThinkBroadband: ADSL speed map
http://maps.thinkbroadband.com/
• The Scottish Government: ‘A study into Broadband Reach in Scotland’
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/12/20130045/5
• BBC: Snapshot of global internet speeds revealed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10786874